> Just the other day a crowd lined up down the block in front of a video game store to grab a copy of a newly released game which was available to download and cripple their net for the duration of the download.
Just to play devil's advocate there are plenty of people who rely on their local game store (I used to fall within one of these).
We still live in a world of data caps and or slow download speeds. I know a few people who live "In the sticks" who rely on satellite for their internet connection. Not only are these connections limited they are often slow. Downloading a game can seriously eat into their allowance.
Some people do not have the local storage to store many games on their device and may prefer having the main chunk of the game on physical media.
There are people who have no internet connection at home and rely on public connections at their schools, libraries, coffee shops, etc to get on line as they need too.
There are people who factor in owning the physical media into their purchase by having the option to sell that copy later down the road when they are no longer playing it (A $60 game may seem an easier purchase if they can sell that game for $20 later down the road).
There are people who do not have the latest gen gaming system who rely on used games to get their gaming. One of my family members still have a Wii for their kids to play on because the games for it are dirt cheap, it has plentiful titles for their age and the kids of an age where they not demanding the latest and greatest games.
There are people for which cash is still king to them. Who get paid in cash and shop in cash. For these people purchasing games online (even physical games) requires a trip to a bank or to a supermarket to top up their amazon gift card to be able to purchase online.
You have kids who have done yardwork, odd jobs and have saved up over the past few months to purchase the game. You have people who have been visiting their local store to pay in advance for a game using their layaway programs.
To these people and many more even though a title was available to download to you and I may the ability to download the game is still be outside the reach to them.
I'm not going to say that everyone in the queue you saw fall into any one of the things I have said. I'm sure there are people out there who could of purchased the game online who chose to visit a physical store. All I'm going to ask is that when you see such things that you take a step back and remember that not everyone is in such a fortunate position as you and I and do we want to live in a world where those less fortunate than us can not have access to such things. Just try and remember that someone in that queue has probably been saving their cash for the past 6 months to purchase their child that game.
TL;DR: Not everyone in that queue were monsters.